41 comments:

Rizal
said...

hi there!i just want to let you know how helpful your table is.im just starting to collect the x titles again after almost two decades of hiatus.i stopped collecting around the time when the new series was introduced (mutant genesis,90's). id been wanting to get back to collecting again for sometime now but i had no idea where to begin as it all got so confusing.but now,thanks to your effort,i can relive some of the greatest memories from my childhood.thanks man.what you did are greatly appreciated :)

This has been a big help! Thanks. One thing that would help even more (if you were willing) would be to create a column that gave a priority status. In other words, I see all those titles, but realistically can't afford to buy them all. I'd love to know which ones were essential to catching up and so that I wouldn't miss out on the important stuff. I stopped collecting around 1999 but I was looking for a good place to jump back on board. Someone told me that the start of New X-Men was a good place...and then Astonishing X-Men.

Hi templesweeper, thanks for your suggestion. Sadly, I'd find it hard to determine which ones are the absolutely vital ones, as I haven't read all of them myself (I'm fairly new to X-books actually). But if someone else wants to chip that would be appreciated. Understandably it's alwmost impossible for anyone to be able to obtain all these books from the prices alone, but at least if people have a couple of them they can see where it all fits in.

Have you read all the New X-Men stuff, starting with the beginning of that series (when it changed the title)? I kind of get a sense that that was the start of the modern era for the X-Books. I started reading Astonishing X-Men, which I enjoyed, but realized that there was so much that happened. I want to read the Phoenix stories, but all I know is what happened to Jean. Not how, why, or how Cyclops ended up with Frost (or even how she became a good-guy). So, I am just looking to get my history a bit more well-rounded.

I noticed that you don't have Phoenix: Endsong on your list. From what I understand, it was a fairly important part of the X-Men continuity the last 5-6 years or so. Do you know where that falls in the chronology?

Hi again templesweeper, Phoenix - Endsong doesn't really impact continuity THAT much although it obviously wouldn't hurt to read it. I'd put it between Astonishing X-Men v. 2: Dangerous and X-Men: Golgotha, as it ran from March 05 - June 05. Hope that helps.

X-Force Vol 3 is a bit tricky to figure out. It gets split up. Issues 12-13 you can read after the first two volumes pretty independently.

And then vol 3 skips about three issues and picks up at issue 17-19 I think.

Issues 14-16 are part of the Cable/X-Force Messiah War. To read this you need to have read the Messiah Complex Trade Paperback and the Cable series up until the same point. It all deals with Cable and the new Mutant kid. So, you could skip it, but as you can see on the list, it does have the Cable/X-Foce Messiah war listed there. And it is very good. You could skip the Cable seriers up to that point and still kind of get what is going on, but I wouldn't recommend it. Make sense?

It does take place right after Messiah Complex. ButX-Force is fairly independent from the other X-Books. But not always. There are some references made by Emma Frost in the Uncanny X-Men series (in San Francisco) about wondering where Logan and Angle keep going...and X-23 comes into her dorm with blood all over her one time. If you want to be sure you're reading it exactly when you should so it all lines up, you'd have to look up the publication dates of the original independent issues. I do this sometimes with Avengers titles. Just google "X-Force 12" or something like that and it will show up somewhere.

^ Thanks, now where would you say the first volume of new mutants i.e. return of legion fits in? Obviously the second one is easier to figure out since it ties into necrosha. I just picked up a bunch of xmen books and am using this guide so Im just wondering where the books that are not listed fit in.

Sorry. Haven't really read any of the New Mutants stuff recently. So I can't really say where it all fits. But, again, if you google the individual issues, you should find release dates, and then you can just match up when you read what.

Hi,after finally having found the courage to enter the marvelverse, I am very gratefull to your site, it has been a great help! Now please forgive my ignorance, but does the Ultimate x-men fit in here anywhere? Can I start there from scratch or is there a way to fit them somewhere into the list.

Hi there, just like everyone else, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all the hard work you've put into this. It's utterly amazing, I only wish all series'es'es'es'es had a page dedicated to what order to read them in! :)..Oustanding work. Thank you

Really appreciate the site, it's helped me quite a bit with trying to get caught up on the X-books. I would suggest moving "X-Men: FF" before "X-men: Schism", however, as the plot happens before the rift in the team.

Hey everyone, just letting you know I have received your comments RE: updates and what not. I am horribly busy and swamped in work at the moment but the list WILL be updated eventually as soon as I have a spare moment. Thanks for your patience!

Just wanted to post about how much I appreciate that you've taken the time to create and update this list! I use it often to catch up on X-book history I missed. THANK YOU! Please keep the updates going through 2012 and 2013!

Hey! Thanks for creating this, it's a GREAT resource. That's coming from someone who has collected Marvel (both trade paperbacks and single issues) for over 20 years. I used to keep them in no order whatsoever. Then I decided to put what I had of the Marvel Universe (mostly X-Men & Avengers) in chronological order (to the best of my ability). Wow! What a task! I soon concluded that I needed either an X-Men or Avengers reading order to at least get started. So I found this and THANK YOU for it! It has allowed me to put my entire Marvel collection in some semblance of order. Cheers!

This list is very very helpful. I have a blog, http://entertainmentbench.blogspot.com/ where I post movies, comics and other things. So this list helps me to give the posts an order and help me find out how many post I will have to post in future. Way to go ...

Hi - good work and something that is helping me read about seven years of various X-Men tpbs in the correct order.

I think I've found an error, though - Kitty Prude appears in the Blinded By The Light TPB, which you have listed after Astonishing volume 4, at the end of which she I trapped inside the bullet that Breakworld launched at Earth.

Hi - This is awesome. I downloaded it and used it as a template for my own list. My goal is to completely catch up beginning with Astonishing X-Men #1. I've filled in tons of gaps and added all new stuff up to the posted upcoming releases. Would you like a copy. Let me know how to contact you and I'll send it. Thanks!